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Grammar English 2126 |
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Word Classes
The word classes of traditional grammar are a combination of the bases and the function words. The bases are called the open classes, so named because it is relatively easy to create new words in each of those categories, while the function words are called the closed classes, since it is less common (though not impossible) for speakers of a language to create new vocabulary in those categories. Slang illustrates the creativity of speakers to invent new vocabulary in the open classes, such as the noun homeboy (a friend), or the verb to ralph (to vomit), or the adjective rad (good). But when was the last time someone invented new vocabulary in one of the closed classes?
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Speakers recognize word classes through three different, but complementary, processes - the use of word endings, function words, and word order. As in many other languages, English employs a great number of word endings to signal different word classes.
Some Examples of Word Endings in English Nouns Verbs Adjectives Adverbs Suffixes -ster gangster -ify beautify -ful useful -ly happily -eer profiteer -ize symbolize -less speechless -ward onward -er teenager -en ripen -ly manly -wise clockwise -let booklet -y meaty -like childlike -ette cigarette -ish foolish -ess actress -able readable -y daddy -ed tired -hood childhood -ship friendship -dom kingdom -ry rocketry -ist stylist -ism idealism -ant inhabitant -ment amazement -age leverage -ness meanness -ity sanity Inflections -s caps -s helps -er shorter -er sooner -en oxen -ed located -est quickest -est soonest -'s Mike's -ing writing -en taken However, word endings are not sufficient to identify all members of a word class, nor can endings identify all word classes. Therefore, speakers also rely on function words and word order to distinguish one class from another. For example, consider the two quotes below. Can you tell which words are adjectives or adverbs, words that modify or describe?
'Twas brillig, and the slithy toves
Did gyre and gymble in the wabe- Lewis Carroll, "The Jabberwocky" in Through the Looking Glass
The gloopy malchicks scattered razdrazily to the mesto.
- Anthony Burgess, A Clockwork Orange
Many people have the sense that the words brillig, slithy, gloopy, and razdrazily are the words that modify. That sense is a combination of factors, including the suffixes -y (also spelt -i- when a second ending is used on the same word, as in razdrazily) and -ly - two suffixes that mark adjectives and adverbs. But word endings are not the only clues to help us find the modifiers. Each sentence also gives us clues from function words and word order. In English, it is common to find noun phrases with a predictable structure of Determiner + Adjective + Noun (the clever children), so the combination of both determiners (the) marking the beginning of noun phrases and word order in the sentences above help us interpret slithy and gloopy as adjectives. It is also common in English to find adjectives after forms of the verb be when the verb functions as the 'copula' verb, the linking verb, as in Elizabeth is clever. So in the first sentence, the verb was (part of the poetic fusion of it was into 'twas) helps us to interpret brillig as an adjective. Finally, it is also common to find adverbs after verbs in English, as in Emily learns quickly. That fact helps us to interpret razdrazily as an adverb in the last example sentence.
In summary, then, it is fair to say that we look for patterns when we do grammar, patterns of word endings, function words, and word/morpheme order. Patterns are crucial in helping us discover the constituents of language: recognizing patterns in distribution and meaning becomes the process through which humans discover the grammatical structures of their languages.
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